I did think that he was hung out to try a bit by Pardew in that he wasn't playing him then started him away at the Eithad and then Old Trafford. Then if we were in the shit he brought him on against the likes of Wolves at home and by that time loads of the crowd were on his back due to the snippets they'd read in the press about him not working hard enough etc. It's worked out in the end for us mind so Pardew does deserve credit for that.
My big concern now is if we don't change our style of play to suit the team then I can see the likes of Ben Arfa getting fed up as he's not being used to his full potential. He should be receiving the ball in the final third and not on the edge of his own area like he is at the moment. I've got no issue if we get beat and we have a go by playing maybe a 4-3-3 with fluid moment. My issue at the moment is we're getting beat off times and we're not playing anywhere near our potential whilst playing such a rigid formation that is negativing the use of our best talents.
There shouldn't be a problem playing 4-3-3 with Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse if they are allowed to roam around and we play the ball to their feet, Ba isn't a target man at all yet he's been used like this a lot of the time. So it's quite miraculous really that he's scored the amount of goals that he has this season due to the lack of service the team has been creating. Hopefully this recent run of form has give Pardew's ego a kicking, as it has certainly needed it as him trying to shoe horn the team into a system that doesn't suit has been to our detriment so far this season. People are mocking Liverpool and Rodgers for their start to the season, but at least you can see he's trying to do something with them and they do actually have some form of a gameplan. I'd love for us to have that at the moment.
During the summer window I felt sorry for Pardew as after last season he deserved some backing, but after his quotes saying what a great window we've had and we should be thankful to Mike he lost any of that from me. Tomorrow night we must play positive, tell Krul to stop lumping it long and build from the back, play Marveaux in a more central role, start Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse in a forward three without any of the rigid movement. We've got the players to do it I'm certain of it, so show us that you trust them to do it Alan.
Nice post.
He basically insinuated that Hatem was lazy and selfish and this malarky went on for about a month. At the same time he let it be know that hatem was doing wonder things in training. He stuck with Obertan till the bitter end, till it was clear the player wouldn't take on a goldfish...When hatem came in he has to play like Maradonna to stay in the side...Panicked as he was at the situation he found himself in.
